Sword Art Online Vol 1 On Blackened Wings
by HelenaCostello
Summary: A darker take on the classic light novel. Asuna has a older sister who joins her into SAO and meet up with Kazuto earlier than in the story. Will go further into depth with the 100 floors the players must clear to escape from the game of death! Rated M for a reason! Pairing is AsunaXKirito
1. Chapter 1

Sword Art Online: On Crow's Blackened Wings

 _An impossibly huge castle of rock and iron, floating in an endless expanse of sky. That is the entirety of_ _ **this world**_ _. A tireless,month-long survery by a team of fanatical experts found that the base floor of the fortress was more than six miles in diameter, just large enough to fit the entire Setagaya ward of Tokyo inside. And considering the_ _ **ONE HUNDRED**_ _floors stacked one on top of the other, the sheer vastness of the structure beggared the imagination. It was impossible to estimate the total amount of data it_ _ **ALL**_ _represented._

 _Inside the castle were several bustling cities, countless smaller towns and villages, forests, plains, and lake. Only_ _ **ONE**_ _staircase connected each floor to those adjacent to it, and these staircases were located within dangerous mazes filled with monsters of all types,shapes and sizes. It was difficult just finding them, much less reaching them, but once someone had cleared the stairs and arrived at a major city the next floor up, a teleport gate liniiung the two floors would open in every city below, allowing_ _ **ALL**_ _players instantaneous travel among the various levels of the castle._

 _This castle's name was_ _ **AINCARD**_ _and this world is Sword Art Online. This is the story of Asuna, Kirito and their friends and their struggles as they try and fight their way through all_ _ **ONE HUNDRED**_ _floors and escape from this world they become trapped in. Here is how it began..._

 _Asuna's House November 6th,2022_

"Helena-chan! We're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" a fifteen year old woman with hazel eyes and long orange-brown hair that reached her waistline exclaimed at her older sister dubbed Helena.

"Meh-meh it wouldn't kill us to take our time little sister. You need to finish your meal first or else mother will be angry with me for not taking care of you properly." Asuna's sister nonchalantly.

Helena stood at 193cm and weight 61kg, the woman appeared skinny under her clothes although she had quite a form that most women would kill for. She wore pale foundation with a dark look along with what people called a _deathhawk_ although the mane was a bright crimson red and her sides were incredibly short almost completely shaved but black.

A few decades ago she may have been labelled as a _goth_ or _deathrocker_ , not that she minded what people called her, she was used to it.

Asuna sighed as she ate her meal of steamed rice,nori and tamagoyaki that her sister Helena Yuki made for her with a slight pout most boys and some girls would find cute and adorable.

Helena giggle slightly at her sister's reaction, she oh so much loved to tease her little sister every chance she got. The young adult couldn't blame her sister though. Her mother was incredibly strict on her for almost no reason saying that _"You must get good grades to succeed and go to college!"_ Helena would have none of that. She adored her little sister and wanted her to not have the stress she had growing up before she made a name for herself in the audio engineering career.

Helena was part of the development for the senses at least of the sound and vibrations that a player would feel once they would go into what the company calls a _"full-dive"_ As a reward the company gave her four of the ten thousand _NerveGear_ available with the new VRMMORPG _Sword Art Online_.

She decided to keep three for her brother, herself and her sister to use and gave one to a little boy she met in the store to pick it up for the beta test. The boy was cute and though he'd like to meet her sister one day if he ever got out of his house neverless his own room.

For some reason she had a bad feeling about this in the back of her mind but she shrugged it off nonchalantly, she was confident enough she could protect her little sister from anything.

 _She would be eating her own thoughts later that day._

 _Kirigaya Kazuto's House November 6th,2022_

Kazuto couldn't believe his luck a couple months ago. Some random woman gave him a _NerveGear_ for free, FREE! That was unheard of, those pieces of gear with the software need to run it was expensive even for those with good jobs.

He did eventually find out her name. Yuki Helena. What a weird name. She seemed to have a German background from her facial features not to mention her body. He shivered slightly at the thought of the beauty. He wasn't an idiot unlike most boys out there though he was still shy and withdrawn.

Helena did want him to meet her younger sister who ironically was a year older than him. She even showed him a picture of her and he couldn't help but mumble out beautiful to which Helena gave him a wicked grin, for what reasons he doesn't know, but nothing malicious from what he sensed.

He actually met Asuna a few times in the _beta test_ of _Sword Art Online_ who used a rapier of all things, nothing wrong with that but he preferred a sword with more weight and dexterity.

Getting out of his thoughts, he wished his sister Kirigaya Suguha luck in practicing her kendo techniques for the day as she usually did after school. Wasting no time he set up the _NerveGear_ correctly and prepared for the first day of _Sword Art Online_. Little does he know that he was in for a long ride that would change his life forever.

 _Aincrad Floor 1_ _ **Town of Beginnings**_ _15:00_

Helena and Asuna were in the shops looking at the current equipment being sold, as a major developer for the _NerveGear_ technology, Akihiko Kayaba gave her a quite a bit of Col on her SOA account as thanks so she didn't need to worry about funds in the game for awhile though she knew to spend it wisely.

Asuna decided to go simple with her outfit; white dyed cooper breast plate for her top, and black leather pants and combat woman's boots along with a dark crimson red tunic. She got tired of boys trying to hound her. She was one of the few SAO players who decide to keep the facial features the same as she looked out of the game.

Helena decided to go a bit more her style. Somehow her usual hairstyle was in the game which irked Asuna to no end. Helena donned a black trench coat with black fur on the cuffs and collar, crimson breastplate, black leather pants along with black combat boots. She decided to carry a scythe on her back. How she could weild such a weapon was beyond Asuna's understanding.

While shopping Asuna noticed that a avatar with black hair with a sense of purpose was running of out the _Town of Beginnings_.

"Meh he looks like one of the beta testers from where he's going." Asuna mused out loud only vocal enough for her sister to really hear her.

"You seem interested in that boy Asuna-chan. Wanna see where he's going?" Helena suggested with a small grin on her face.

"Not really but he seems familar, why not? We should try to grind our levels anyway and get some progress." Asuna retorted as she bought a steel rapier for 100 Col and shealthed it to her side.

Helena said nothing as she led the way out of the town.

 _Outside of The Town of Beginnings_

Kirito was having a bit of a fun time trying to teach this guy that followed him how to fight properly. Course who wouldn't when you're a beta tester? It was amusing to see a fellow player learn his first _VRMMORPG._

On his way out of the town, Kirito got stopped by a rather tall man with a scruffy beard reading a red bandana like a samurai would. The man begged him for him with learning some tricks and tips. Being a nice guy Kirito offered to help him.

Klein was having issues fighting a boar no matter what he just couldn't seem to hit the damn thing. He noticed out of the corner of his eye Kirito picking up a small rock before it glowed brightly for a second as he launched the pebble at the boar distracting it from Klein.

"You need to use your _Sword Skills_ Klein. It will help with your motions with battling enemies who are difficult to defeat using your basic skills. How do I explain this..." Kirito stated and mused as he guarded against the boar's charge.

Little did the two know, Asuna and Helena were coming towards them.

"Oi, little one you need help with that big bad boar?" Helena shouted over the hill top.

Kirito's eye ticked a bit. He hated being called little. He was _average_ sized for a male his age damn it!

"I'm fine Miss! just teaching Klein here how to use _Sword Skills_." Kirito replied before turning his attention to Klein. "Alright! Here's how you do _Sword Skills_ You don't just hold the sword and just swing randomly one,two,three... You have to pause just enough in your first motion to fgeel the skill cue up, then _BAM!_ it activates! You try!" he explained before countering the Frenzied Boar to Klein.

As Asuna watched carefully with a steady eye, she raised her eyebrow as Klein successfully used his _Sword Skill: Tsumuji Guruma(Revolving Wheel)_ to slash through the boar in one sweep.

"Huh... quick learner that one is. I can tell he's new to this type of game. Though that boy is interesting enough I think he was about to get to level 8 in the beta test." Helena mused to herself.

The two ladies walked the way down the hill into the plains. Kirito raised his eyebrows a bit, he wondered what the two ladies wanted though they seemed familar to him.

"You seem to be quite knowledgable with the game's system Kirito-chan. Got far did you?" Helena smirked a bit as Kirito sweat dropped a bit.

"Wait you seem familar... You wouldn't happen to be the lady that gave me the software a couple months would you?" Kirito guessed.

"Correct Kirito-kun. Though I must say why the change in structure. You are quite cute outside of the game." Helena replied with a small giggle.

Kirito sighed and shook his head while looking at Klein practicing his sword skills stuck in his euphoria of how it felt before turning his attention to Asuna.

"Oh? I wasn't expecting you here Asuna." Kirito stated.

"Well I was a wee bit excited to start playing this. Although my slow poke of a sister wanted me to eat first." Asuna grumbled while crossing her arms in a small pout.

"I have NOOO idea what you mean Little Sister." Helena laughed.

Suddenly the _Town of Beginnings_ Bells started ringing. The group all looked towards the town with concerned looks.

"Really? A notice already? That is suspious... " Helena mused though she was glad that her part in the sense development of the _NerveGear_ was up to snuff with her standards in sound engineering.

The group was teleported together into the center of the town as red caution started blaring and a hooded figured started to materialized before all 10,000 players of SAO.

 _Below the Town of Beginnings_

"What do you mean you want me to _**not**_ come into contact with any of the players?! I though my job was to help their psychological state if there were any negative effects Cardinal?!" A small girl wearing a white dress with long purple hair exclaimed at the tall man.

"Normally I would gladly let you do your job however... this MUST be done for the sake of the project Yui-chan. I'll know if you try to interfer and trust me when I say. **You won't like the consquences**." The man stated harshly before disappearing from the white room they were in.

The little girl now called Yui had a confused look on her face before she went back to her screen, on the screen were four people, Klein, Asuna, Kirito and Helena. She couldn't help but feel like those four would be important to this game's story. But what does she know? She's just an AI. She doesn't have feelings or a soul right?

 _Back to the Town of Beginnings_

Kirito and Helena were glaring at the hooded figure. The both of them knew that was the usual avatar for a GM of SAO. How something was wrong. Why would nearly 10,000 users be collected here? Something was adding up. Helena unconsiously held her sister close as of sensing horrible news about to be released.

" _Greetings Sword Art Online Players, I assume many of you are wondering why I have brought you here."_ the GM stated as players were yelling out differing statements.

"Why can't we log out?!"

"I was in the middle of grinding boars you asshole!"

"Hurry it up!"

"What's going on?!"

 _"First let me introduce myself, I am Kayaba Akihiko the creator,developer and_ _ **ONLY**_ _GM of Sword Art Online!"_ he paused to let the infomation pass through.

"OI! I did the sound engineering asshole! At least give me credit!" Helena screamed out at the top of her lungs.

Kirito,Asuna and Klein looked over at Helena before facepalming at her antics. Asuna was used to this since she knew that her sister like to crack jokes at inapporiate times.

 _"My apologizes, Miss Yuki but I did give you four copies of said NerveGear as thanks didn't I?"_

The crowd was stunned at this women who had the well lack of better word, _balls_ to yell her voice against the GM.

 _"Continuing on... I'm sure most of you have noticed that there is no log out button, this is_ _ **not**_ _a bug this is part of the game mechanics."_ Kayaba Akihiko explained nonchalantly.

Thousands of faces were suddenly frozen in fear,nervousness,anger and a range of other emotions. Kirito,Asuna and Helena all check their main menus and saw that he was right the log out button was **NOT** there.

 _"From this point forward, you will be unable to_ _ **freely**_ _log out of the game until the game is conquered."_

Kirito was stunned into silence, all **100** floors of Aincard? That would weeks,months, maybe even _**YEARS**_ to get through all 100 levels of the game even if all the beta testers joined up together on the front line to take on all the bosses with the infomation that they gathered over the past two months about the game.

Helena meanwhile was gritting her teeth as she held her now scared sister close to her and Klein was freaking out trying _desperately_ to log out for his pizza that he ordered that night.

"You bastard... **IS THIS SOME KIND OF GAME TO YOU?!** " Helena roared in rage at Kayaba Akihiko.

He ignored her rageful statement and moved on with his speech after all one had to maintain professionalism with **his** world that he worked so hard to create.

" _Also the NerveGear can_ _ **NOT**_ _be removed from the outside world. Doing so would activate the microwaves in the software to scramble your brains and leave you Brain Dead. Another point is that you will no longer respawn unless you collect a extremely rare item in the near future. So just like in the real world you have_ _ **ONE**_ _life so use it well._

"What about the battery power!?" Klein asked outloud in the silent crowd.

" _Ah a fine question Klein. Do not worry about that. To be more specfic the brain frying will not commence unless there is no external power for 10 minutes,two hours of network disconnections; removal,dismantling or destruction of the NerveGear. The authories and media have already announced the details of these conditions to the general public. At present, the firends and family of several players have_ _ **already**_ _ignored these warnings and atempted to forecfully removed their NerveGears the reason being..."_

" _That sadly_ _ **two hundred and thirteen players**_ _have permanently retired from both Aincard and the real world."_ Kayaba Akihiko stated solemly like he was actually saddened by the fact that so many players have already died before the tutorial even ended.

Many of the players couldn't believe it, they stood there emotionless trying to make process and resist his explainations but what could they do?

The word reverberated over and over in Kirito and Helena's ears as Klein fell on his ass in disbelief and Asuna was crying into her sister's chest.

Something finally snapped in one of the other players.

"How do you expect us to conquer the game?! You can't just _expect_ us to sit back and enjoy the game when we can't even log out?"

 _"Now I have a gift for you all, there is a mirror in your inventories. Open them up and take it out."_

As all the players did so there was a bright light. All the customization that the players did were cancelled out and formed to their true height,weight and facial features.

Kirito was baffled how could the _NerveGear_ do _this_? Klein and Helena seeing to read their thoughts explained unknowingly.

"There was a pre-setup before we could log into the game... We had to touch current parts of our bodies. A calibration..." they stated solemly.

" _Now I will answer a question I heard earlier. 'Why am I doing this?' Why would I developer of SAO and the NerveGear unit, do such a thing? Is it and act of terrorism? An elaborate kidnapping to extract ransom money?"_

The crowd fell silent as Kayaba Akihiko made his final statment known.

" _What I seek is neitherr of these things. I have no goals or justificaitons at this moment. In fact this very situation was my ultimate goal. I created these products to buld this world and observe it. I have now acheived this aim."_

" _This concludes the tutorial phase of Sword Art Online I wish you all the best of luck,dear players." Kayaba Akihiko_ stated as the GM avatar vanished into nothingness and the barrier keeping all the players where they were disapated.

Suddenly there were screams. Rage. Shrieks. Insults. Pleading and Roars. In a matter of five hours Kayaba Akihiko had turned a fun _VRMMORPG_ into a death battle for their freedom it was unnerving to many of the players, almost all of them in fact.

Kirito got out of his shooked up state and grabbed Klein and ran for the exit almost at the exit Klein stopped and Kirito explained his thoughts.

"If what Kayaba Akihiko said is true we have to get stronger in order to survive here. I'm sure you know that MMORPGs are a battle over system resoruces. There's only so much gold,loot, and experience to go around, so the more you win, the stronger you get. Everyone is going to have the same idea, so the fields around the _Town of Beginnings_ will be bled dry in no time. You'll be forced to wander around, endlessly waiting for mobs to repop. We need to take this opportunity to set up base in the next town. I know the way, and I know which spots are dangerous. I can get us there safely even at level one." Kirito quickly explained.

Klein shook his head and chuckled a bit.

"I can't just leave my friends I stayed in line with to get this game Kirito... You go ahead and go." Klein replied to the short black haired swordsman.

Kirito's body shook as he turned around and ran out of the town. Feeling the brutality of the situation he was dealt. He saw a dire wolf up ahead, he drew his blade and activated his _Sword Skill_ slicing through it with ease. He panted heavily as he looked on towards the path.

Suddenly two ladies appeared behind him. The taller one with a hand on his shoulder.

"Now where do you think you're going Kirito-chan?" the tall one stated with curiousity.

"I need to go alone-" Kirito began to say before seeing it was Helena with Asuna on her shoulders knocked out.

"We all know that is bullshit Kirito. Solo Players don't do that well. Even one as talented as you. There is strength in numbers. Klein asked me for a favor and I plan to go through with it." Helena explained with a serious look on her pale face.

Kirito looked at his main menu as he saw 3 invites.

 _Asuna and Helena sent a friend request._

 _Asuna and Helena want to form a party with you. Do you wish to accept?_

 _Greetings readers, Helena Costello here I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this fanfic. Now this story will **mostly** follow canon. As you can tell I have a made an OC to play Asuna's sister, I may add a few more but it will focus more on Kirito and Asuna than my OC I promise you that. The pairing in here is Asuna and Kirito and ONLY those two together. As a warning this fanfic will be rated M for a reason. I plan to take this darker and more in depth. I do take critism well so feel free to leave comments on the chapter review it but keep things like "you're writing sucks lol" away from it. explain why it sucks and I may revise the chapter for better quality._

 _Italic are text,places and important terms/skills_

 **Bold is yelling or asserting a certain word in the sentence**

 _'Italics with apostarphes are thoughts'_


	2. Chapter 2: Surviving The First Month

_Sword Art Online Vol 1: On Blackened Wings_  
 _Chapter 2 The Month of Surviving the First Floor_

 _ **A quick author's note before we begin, I will be posting Asuna,Kirito and Helena's status' on my profile on here( ) if you want to know their current levels and equipment.**_

 _Asuna has sent you a friend request_  
 _Helena has sent you a friend request_

The two text stared back at Kirito before he sighed and looked at the two girls. He had been staring at the notification for an hour now still at the same spot where he killed that dire wolf in one sword skill.

"Why? Why go after me and join me?" Kirito asked, tears sightly leaking from the magnitude of his current situation.

Most wouldn't call Kazuto a emotional man. They all knew that he tended to think with logic and plan his moves before doing **anything** it being important or not. That's why he built as good computers as he did. His mother Kirigaya Midori kept trying to get him to start a business sell custom made PCs sinc e that's all he did in his free time besides MMOs and MMORPGs.

"Kirito even you realize there IS a impenetrable ceiling as a solo player even if you get lucky and get key items and weapons before the others. There is strength in numbers especially at our levels." Helena explained while Asuna was silent, she was listening to the two converse while still sniffling.

"And what about you Asuna? What's your take on this?" Kirito redirected the same question to the other younger sister.

"Well I agree with my sister about her point. Plus shouldn't we try to get out of here as soon as possible I mean we are going to be losing DAYS of our life thanks to that insane creator." Asuna retorted as she rubbed her shoulder and looked at her steel rapier.

Kirito sighed and clicked accept for the friend and party request. The girls _did_ have a point plus his mother did always want him to have friends for once instead of staying in his room 24/7. He looked a his friends list.

 _Klein- Level 2- Town of Beginnings-_  
 _Asuna- Level 5-TOB Fields-In Party_  
 _Helena- Level 10- TOB Fields- In Party_

Kirito raised an eyebrow at Helena _'How in the HELL is she already level 10? That would take me a dozen hours even with my experience.'_

"Well we should get going to the next town anyway... I have a feeling we're going to need a safe zone soon. Especially with all of us being trapped here." Kirito stated as he lead the party through the path to the next town.

"Fair enough point. Asuna, go to the front with Kirito. You need more fighting experience besides..." Helena grinned evilly "We need to work on teamwork after all." Asuna shivered in fright. Her sister was evil when training her, she still had nightmares from the self-defense classes.

 _ **Underneath the Town of Beginnings**_

A man with gray hair in red armor and a simple sword a shield stared at the admin module nearby where Yui was still watching the newsfeed.

"Hmmm seems like those three with be very interesting in the near future... Especially you... Kirito-kun. I **WILL** have you in my guild." the man mused to himself with a amused chuckle.

The small girl Yui was whimpering slightly as she felt her mentality weakening over the newsfeed that happened. Over the past couple of hours one hundred more players committed suicide which she didn't understand why, why would people end their lives that easily? The screams still shook her core. Why did cardinal and the creator not allow her to help their mental statuses?.

The man looked over at Yui before leaving the control room and locked this floor until the players got to a certain level.

 _ **Outside of SAO at Kirigaya Residence**_

"Big Brother I'm home!" Suguha Kirigaya, Kazuto's adoptive sister yelled out placing her kendo equipment by the door.

She waited a few minutes but received no reply. She shrugged her shoulders like this was the usual cycle of their family life.

Kazuto usually had a habit of not coming out of his room until dinner time, it's just the way he acted for the past four years now.

She walked into the living room when she saw her mother Midori staring at the news bulletin on the plasma TV screen.

 _"Important News Bulletin. There are currently 213 deaths within the past couple of hours being reported. Authories say it was due to their parents trying to remove the NerveGear they need to play the new VRMMORPG called Sword Art Online. The press official for Argus released an official statement from Akihiko Kayaba saying that under_ _ **NO**_ _circumstances should the equipment be removed unless you wish to cause death to the user. There is a two hour leeway time to which you can unplug the NerveGear to take the user a nearby hospital so that they may be put on life support."_

Suguha's eyes widened as she ran upstairs to her brother's room.

 _'Please don't have it on, please don't have it on!'_ she begged to whatever gods and goddesses that she knew of as she opened the door to her brother's room.

Suguha fell to her knees and wept as she saw that he had the _NerveGear_ on. Before she could process the scene she heard a knock at the door where her mother answered the door.

"Hello?" the young mother replied with tears escaping from her eyes slightly.

"Mrs. Kirigaya? I am an official with the Argus company we're here to take your son to a nearby hospital. May I come in?" The tall woman stated before being let in by the grief-stricken mother.

 _ **Two Weeks later at Horunka Village**_

"So Kirito did you find any interesting quests?" Asuna inquired the young black-haired swordsman.

"Well I did find out info from a contact of mine about a quest called _Secret Medicine of the Forest._ It may prove useful as it has the _Anneal Blade_ as a reward which is said to allow up to eight enhancements." Kirito stated as he ate a piece of state bread with butter on it.

The trio of the users were working on grinding their levels to an apporiate level for the past couple of week while trying to find the First Floor Boss Room. Needlessly to say that they were having trouble finding it was an understatement. It appears that Kayaba had switched all of the maps around from the _beta version_.

"Well you did help Asuna and myself find good weapons Kirito-kun. I'm sure we can complete this quest and help your equipment get stronger eh?" Helena suggested as she sharpened her large black scythe.

Helena's choice in weapons was a rather... _bizzare_ choice. One needed alot of Strength,Flexiblity and Dexterity to weild a scythe although her second choice in weapons were short swords though she never drew it except in close corners.

The trio found the villager who was offering up the quest with no issue, surprisingly there was no line for said quest either which was strange considering that this weapon would help the player out for the next couple of floors.

Kirito approached the missus house and knocked on the door.

"Is anyone home?"

A little old lady answered the door though the three noticed that there was something amiss on the missus.

The lady let the party into the house and ushered them into the living room.

"Would you three travelers care for some water?" the missus asked.

Asuna rose her eyebrow slightly but accepted the water none the less when she heard a coughing from the other room.

"Uh ma'am does your child need any help?" Kirito inquired to the older looking NPC.

"I'm afraid there isn't much I can do for my child now." she wept. "All the doctors in town tried their best medicine and it didn't work on my sweet little Agatha."

"What about out of town certainly there must be a herb or something that would help the strange illness?" Helena asked in a velvet monotone voice

"Well they say there is a plant out in the forest called a _Little Nepenthes._ I'd go but I'm not strong enough for the monsters in that forest. Would you be willing to get the _Ovule_ from the plant? I will offer my family's prized blade the _Anneal Blade_ if you can do so." the lady explained as a notice appeared in the party's notifcations

 _Accept the Quest Secret Medicine of the Forest?_

Kirito accepted the quest since he would be getting the main item from the quest. The other two swordswomen didn't like longswords. Though he rolled his eyes at Helena when she said that. A Scythe was harder to weild than a longsword after all.

The party left the house with the quest started. A rather surprising thing happen though they only had 18 hours to get the medicine to the missus.

 _ **Tokyo Hospital 2 weeks after the SAO incident started**_

Suguha visited Kirito again that week. It was all that she could do to keep her wits about her. Her mother tried to keep busy by cleaning the house everyday and take little to no days off.

Their father had no idea yet though he would be back from the United States for the winter break and the holidays.

"Kazuto... why are you so into these types of games?" Suguha questioned out loud before leaving the room ignoring the other two females that were also trapped in Sword Art Online with her brother.

 _ **Nepenthes Forest**_

The name of the forest was quite fitting for the monsters. Then the missus told her the name of the monster that would have the herb they would need for her child, Agatha; they thought it wouldn't be rather small. They were mistaken. The ' _Little' Nepenthes_ stood at 1.5 meters or nearly 5 feet tall.

" Little?! If these are _Little Nepenthes_ I'd hate to see a bigger version of these!" Asuna ranted as she used her _Sword Skill : Streak_ to run her rapier though five of the monsters.

Kirito shived a bit at Asuna's anger.

 _'Note to self don't piss her off..._ _ **EVER**_ _'_ Kirito thought to herself

"But little sister think of the experience! We can level faster in this forest!" Helena giggled as she finished off the monsters that Asuna greatly wounded with her giant scythe.

Asuna facepalmed at her sister's antics, she loved her sister she really did but did she have to be such a sociopath at times?

Kirito finished off the last of the Nepenthes with a more higher ranked skill called _Star Quint Prominence_. The five slashes that came from his blade in a star formation disappeared as he shealthed his blade and took a quick calming exhale.

"In any case Helena, I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible without injury. Though I think we've killed about one hundred of these things without a single one with a flower to show up." Kirito stated in a monotone voice that screamed essentially to stop messing around.

"Meh sure sure, I get a wee bit excited in combat." Helena retorted with a slight chuckle before folding her scythe into two and attaching it to her chain belt.

The trio continued on for a couple of more hours finding neither hide or hair of the flower though they didn't run into any more of the _Nepenthes_ either.

"This is getting suspious... Why do I have the feeling that the one with the flower is going to be tougher than the small fries?" Asuna mumbled to herself, a hand on her rapier.

"Because that seems to always be the case with quests like these. _Especially_ with rare drops. I predict that the drop of this herb is probably 1 to 10% chance based the amount of enemies that were in the front of the forest." Kirito explained, knowing the game machanics a bit better than the other two women.

Helena smiled a bit behind the two teenagers. She liked it when the two interacted, they seemed to bring the good in each other and that was saying something considering what she though of the male gene pool with her past experiences.

It was a long two weeks for the trio before they got their wits about them. Asuna and Kirito didn't really mesh well at first since the both of them were shy to begin with, both being introverts she assumed though, she was no sunshine daisy either.

A couple of hours later the trio found another group of _Nepenthes_ however there were some **twice** the size of the normal ones.

"Holy"

"Fucking"

"Shit..." the three cursed together as they unshealth their blades.

Helena and Kirito evaluated the group of monsters with a critical eye and noticed many of them had red fruits on their mouths and there was two with a red flower on their mouths.

"Goal found..." Kirito mused.

"Um... wasn't there something in the guide we built with the other beta testers about the ones with the red fruits on their mouths?" Asuna inquired.

Kirito opened his back pocket as he went to the section of the 1st Floor chapter on _Little Nepenthes._

 _Flashback a week ago in Horunka Village_

 _895 beta testers were gathered in the center of town. A few of the more experienced beta testers that got to the tenth floor knew that if they were going to survive they would need to collect intel to help all the users survive in this death game._

 _Helena,Asuna,Kirito and a few others put bulletins in Horunka Village and The Town of Beginnings for the meeting. Those who were not a beta tester would be escorted out of the center of town by the army built in the Town of Beginnings._

 _A man named Heathcliff who wore some pretty standard dyed red steel armor with a sword and shield equipped on his back stood at the podium ready to start the meeting._

 _"Fellow beta testers welcome and thank you for coming. Today we're here to gather intel of what we all have discovered in the two months of playing in the beta before this death game began." the gray haired swordsman explained._

 _A tall african man stood up. He stood at an impressive 183 centimeters or a little over six feet tall. He wore gray iron armor with a great battle axe strapped to his back._

 _" Greetings my name is Agil, I believe in order to help all of the users we need to create a battle guide of all monsters, items, quests, known battle and outside skills and the like and make it free to anyone who needs it. There would be updates every three months of course as we would conquer more floors." Agil explained as he offered his idea to the large group_

 _"Why should we?!"_

 _"We spent two months working by ourselves to get our equipment why should we share?!"_

 _"It's pretty much every man for himself here!"_

 _The arguments continued like this for the next twenty minutes amongst most of the beta testers._

 _Helena and Asuna facepalmed while Kirito frowned at the selfishness of the other beta testers. Helena decided to speak her mind and usually when she does people learn. The easy way.. or the hard way._

 _"_ _ **OI!**_ _Shut up!" She yelled over the crowd as she made her way over to the podium._

 _Most of the beta testers weren't used to seeing a woman of her caliber. After all she was taller than even Agil._

 _"What do you want girlie?! Need to exchange recipes with your fellow women here?" a rude beta tester yelled at her._

 _Helena glared at the ignorant male before rolling her eyes._

 _"Psh why would I do that when my younger sister is the cook of my group?" she retorted before continuing on._

 _"You all need to grow up and realize something. This is REAL, this is our reality for however long it takes us to beat this game that Kiyaba forced us all into without dying permenantly." Helena stated as she looked amongst the players._

 _"I agree it's hard to share our hard work. I myself made it to Floor 15 within the 2 months so I have alot of intel to share. However! That doesn't make me any more special than anyone else. We HAVE to work together and beat the 100th floor. Get your asses into gear and do your part. We already lost another 500 players in just 2 weeks alone because of the lack of intel being passed around." Helena continued her explanation._

 _Kirito drowned out the rest of her speech as he realized that Asuna's sister got further than even HIMSELF. That was saying something. He did more of the side quests and hunting quests that were available at the time but still he considered himself rather high up on the food chain. He made it to the 12th Floor after all._

 _He sighed as he looked at Asuna who gave him a curious look before he smiled at her and waved her off before she was going to ask him a question._

 _"Heh guess Helena beats even me with experience. Can't blame her this game was rather addicting and she did help develop it." Kirito mused._

 _"She always worked hard Kirito. She worked for YEARS at her craft only the best sound engineers could work for the company at the time she was the only one who also wanted to play the game with other users to make friends." Asuna explained to the black swordsman._

 _"Ever since that day... but that's not my story to tell. I'm sure she may tell you later Kirito. Let's compile our info. We did make it to the same floor after all." Asuna finalized as she began to type down her info into a notepad section of her menu._

 _"Agreed." Kirito replied as he began working on the experiences he gathered over the past two months._

 _Helena stopped her speech with a small smirk noticing that her words came through to the more selfish of the beta testers. She handed all of her infomation to Agil._

 _"Make use of this info Agil, if you need any help give me a message nee?" Helena stated before she returned to her sister and Kirito._

 _"That woman... she sure is something..." Agil mused as Heathcliff nodded as well._

 _'So... you are giving it your all eh Helena-chan? I'll give your little group a little gift in due time. You are rather... amusing to say the least and I do so love a good story.' Heathcliff mused to himself as he gave Agil some info too, not too much of course couldn't have people guessing who he really was this soon into the game._

 _Flashback end..._

"Ah here it is. Red fruits summon more of it's brethen to attack the group and overwhelm them especially those at lower levels." Kirito stated as he closed the book and put it back into his inventory.

"Strange that the bigger ones are here as well though." Asuna mused to herself as she discarded her cloak since it would only get in her way.

"More of a challenge I always say haha!" Helena laughed as she rushed at the _Large Nepenthes_ "Come at you knaves!" she yelled as she activated her _Sword Skill: Fell Crescent_ spinning her blade into a large diameter of 5 meters around her, damaging the bigger monsters by 25% before running to have them chase her and have the other two focus on the smaller ones.

"Well I guess that worked..." Kirito sweatdropped before cutting down a monster with a horizontal strike.

"I swear she's going to get herself killed one of these days." Asuna complained as she did a small number of thrusts on a small group of the smaller monsters being sure to avoid the red fruits.

Unbeknownst to the trio they were followed by another beta tester named Coper who waited for his moment to get the quest item he needed to get the _Anneal Blade._

 _'Almost there... then I'll spring my trap on them.' the boy thought to himself as he lied in wait using his hiding skill_

Helena returned from killing the _Large Nepenthes_ with moderate damager to herself having about 65% of her health remaining.

"Not my brightest idea doing that.." Helena panted a bit before drinking one of her potions she bought in town.

"Hey you're the one who wanted to aggro 20 of them." Kirito argued before the older woman waved him off.

"Anyway here you go Kirito-chan I managed to kill one of the _Little Nepenthes_ coming back here."

The group noticed that the monsters were retreating appearantly once the key item was acquired the aggro dissipated. Suddenly they saw a boy around Kirito's age appear and kill a _Little Nepenthes_ holding a red fruit before suddenly a giant horde of the monsters appeared around them.

"Enjoy dying idiots! I can't wait to get your equipment!" the boy laughed insanely before using his hiding skill again.

Kirito,Asuna and Helena all looked at each other before facepalming at the same time.

"You fucking idiot these monsters don't have eyes they can still find you." Kirito complained before focusing on the enemies around his group.

"What should we do? Stay and kill all of the horde or retreat back to town?" Asuna questioned the other two.

"Let's retreat back to town even at our levels this is too much for us." Helena suggested as the other two agreed ignoring the cries of Coper's unevitable death.

 _Agatha's House 2 hours later_

"Thank you adventurers please accept this reward for saving my daughter Agatha." the missus bowed as the notification appeared in Kirito's menu that he acquired the _Anneal Blade_.

"Well what's next Kirito? Should we go to _Tolbana Town_?" Asuna inquired the youth.

"Might as well... We should be ready to try and find the _Floor Labyrinth_ so we can finally advance to the next floor. I just hope we don't continue at this pace or else it will take us around five years to get to the 100th floor." Kirito mused to the group as they made their way to the second largest town in the floor.

 _To Be Continued..._

 _Helena here again hope you enjoyed this chapter. There wasn't much to go on from the light novels so I decided to put some side stuff such as the making of the guide book._

 _Now some may be wondering where I get my skills to which I get them from the sword art online wikia page from some of the SAO games made so far. I know there isn't any scythe skills so I use some combos of a few if the types of weapons. Expect the next chapter probably around the middle of the month. If you have any ideas for quests you'd like to see let me know._

 _Also I won't be doing every single floor in this story that'd just be longer than most would like I'll probably be doing a good chunk of the floors alot more than the series or light novels. I'm thinking around 50 floors will be shown. Let me know if you think that's good enough for you all._


	3. Chapter 3: Illfang the Kobold Lord

_Sword Art Online Volume 1: On Blackened Wings_  
 _Chapter 3: Illfang the Kobold Lord_

 _December 1, 2020_

Asuna and Kirito were in the floor's dungeon labryinthin the midst of a small mob battle doing some extra leveling and polishing their skills. Asuna however was a bit worried with her steel rapier it was showing alot of damage, she'd have to check her weapon after this mob was defeated.

Normally Helena was with them but she had a meeting with Agil along with a few errands to run. The reason why they didn't know though she seemed to have a serious expression on her face at the time. Like something was important to her.

To Asuna this was a _very rare occasion_ which rarely happened in her household. She could track maybe eight times when Helena was deadly serious about something outside of her work as an audio engineer. She saw many a musician especially inspiring vocalists get kicked out of their household all she could remember her mumbling to herself is _"God damn bakas trying to cup the microphone"_

 _With Helena_

Helena wasn't a big fan of lying to her friends and family it was one of her biggest pet peeves in life. She always had to deal with that growing up which is why she rarely trusted people _ever_. She had more to deal with in this so called _death game_ that her former boss involved her in. She made one more project with this game. An AI called Yui.

She put alot of work into her like it was her only daughter which was unusual considering that she was only 24 years of age.

She walked through the hidden level of the floor that only two people knew about. Herself and Akihiko Kayaba. She knew it was risky doing this early but she _had_ to know the status. Why wasn't the program she spent _countless hours_ not working properly?

As she arrived in the admin console room where she designed where the program to be. You figured that such an important program would be on the final floor but she oh did love to twist people's logic.

Helena's eyes widened as she saw her beloved program glitching randomly.

"Wha- why, how?!" she questioned herself.

"I did _thousands_ of tests and she worked perfectly!" she raged quietly to herself.

The young woman accessed the control panel and looked at Yui's code and her eyes narrowed.

"Kiyaba... you fucking... **bastard** you WILL pay for this. You think this is a fucking game?! I-I accepted to do this side project for my, no... I will not utter the name in here." she trumbled over her words, no one must find out this secret not even her sister.

"Yui-chan I WILL fix you I swear it. I can't do so now... There's too much at stake. However..." Helena stated to herself as she began making another program.

"I will protect you from further harm by either the system or it's so called _creator_. I swear as a mother." She swore to herself.

 _Boss created... Level 120, Weapon: Scythe of the Forgotten Gods, Code Name: The Fatal Scythe._

"Heh not even _you_ could defeat this boss you bastard. You will not harm this child again." She stated as she left the room.

 _Back with Kirito and Asuna in the 1st Floor Labyrinth_

"Uh Asuna I have a question." Kirito inquired.

"Go on..." Asuna stated as she shealthed her rapier, she sighed as she went through her fifth rapier that day and they were only on the 19th floor of this labyrinth.

"Why do you use _Linear_ on an enemy with nearly no health left? That's kinda overkill to be honest."

"Honestly I see no problem with it, sure I get exhausted, however I don't think that I'll survive long in this game." Asuna stated with a slight depressive tone in her voice as she looked down in her lap unconsiously rubbing her leg.

"Hey. No dying on me now you hear? Your sister would KILL me if anything happened to you." Kirito responded as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"But... I'm not nearly as strong as my sister.. I just joined her in playing this game so that I could spend more time with her since she was busy all the time and my mother made me finish all my homework and do chores and other various activities." Asuna argued to the teen.

Kirito sighed as he shook his head at her.

"Make your own destiny Asuna. I think that's what your sister did. Live in the moment. Don't live to please others." Kirito stated with somewhat a form of wisdom even he didn't know he had.

 _'Kirito...'_ the girl thought as she had her hand over her breast and stared at him. _'Thank you'_

A message appeared on her board from her sister.

 _Come back to town there's a boss meeting for this floor apparently.~Helena_

"Oi Kirito! We need to head back to town apparently there's a meeting." Asuna stated before she started to walk over to a teleport portal for the beginning of the labyrinth for this floor.

"That... was weird." Kirito commented before following her back to town.

 _Hospital in Tokyo in Kirito's Room_

Midori sighed as she looked at her daughter holding her adoptive son's hand. She knew that she would probably cause some feelings between her daughter and adoptive step son.

"Suguha.. there is something I must tell you. It involves your brother." she started to tell her letting her get a moment to prepare herself.

"Kazuto is not your brother by blood. He is your cousin on his father's side of the family. He mostly likely knows from what I've gathered in the last couple of years." She finished stating to the young teenager.

Now people would say that Suguha was smart,strong and beautiful. She had boys crushing on her already at the age of thirteen. Her body had started puberty earlier than most girls which was unusual in her family tree since her mother didn't start puberty herself til she was 15, 2 years later than Suguha.

"Is... is that why he became cold to us kaa-san?" the young woman questioned.

"No... I don't think so at least. He might just be lost or confused."

Someone entered the room that moment before getting their attention suddenly. It was a tall woman the same one who talked with Midori about having her son in the same room with the other two women in the room. Asuna Yuki and Helena Costello Yuki.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation." the woman stated.

"Who are you?" Suguha asked curiously.

"Oh my mistake. My name is Skyla Costello, Helena's biological mother." the woman stated.

"But if your her biological mother why does she have the Yuki family name as well?" the teen inquired.

"Her story... well it's complicated and not mine to tell. However she was in trouble and the Yuki family offered to help her in ways her father and I could not. That's not to say we weren't there for her it just was with our jobs we couldn't and we need support for someone." she stated before clearing her throat.

"Anyway my point is that I probably know what your cousin is going through. He feels lost and confused. His life probably shattered when he found out. That's how our daughter felt when she found out what we HAD to do for her. All I'm saying is let him open himself up. Be there for him. He'll be sure to thank you one day." Skyla replied as she looked over at her only daughter and kissed her hand.

"Did your child do that?"

"Yes, she did make me her only lawyer along with the Yuki's apparently there was some family issues that she needed help with. She's smart but well... lawyers are craftier than even her at times in the right circumstances." she laughed.

A man outside with glasses grumbled to himself, he was NOT expecting Skyla to be here. She was the one who foiled his plan for his bride to be. The guard next to the door looked over at him.

"You know the rules. You can not be within one hundred feet of Ms. Yuki... Sugou" the officer stated before escorting him outside.

 _Tolbana Village December 4th 0900 AST_

"You know when you sent me the message that there was a group meeting for the boss battle I thought you meant in a few hours not a few days Helena." Asuna remarked the older woman as said woman sweatdropped a bit and scratched her nose.

"Meh... It's good to have a couple days break little sister. I know how hard you train, honestly I swear you went through twenty rapiers within the last two weeks." Helena nonchalantly waved her off as she ate a piece of bread.

Asuna sighed as she shook her head at her sister. She was always a wee bit too protective on her. Though for good reason, her past wasn't exactly all sunshine and daisies with potential suitors trying to court her for the past couple of years before Helena put her foot down and demanded that Asuna choose her own future boyfriend or girlfriend.

"Nee Asuna doesn't your sister have a wife? Someone her age and beauty should _clearly_ have someone by now?" Kirito inquired.

"You could say that in a way." Asuna stated before standing up to start walking to the location of the meeting. "Come on we'll be late to the meeting."

"You're just mad you can't get any Asuna!" Helena laughed as she followed behind the duo.

 _At the courtyard arena in Tolbana_

A blue haired swordsman with a shield adjusted on his back looked over at the crowd, he count 44 players had arrived for this meeting, he saw a couple people who he looked at with interest. His eyes fell on Kirito and his blade.

 _'A Anneal Blade huh? That's rare most people can't do that quest yet until maybe level 15.'_ the swordsman thought to himself.

He noticed that Kirito was trading with another one of his group a young woman wearing dyed white armor with a red cloak, she seemed excited at the item before she hugged the boy.

The man shook his head before looking at the time and decided to start this meeting.

"Greetings players! My name is Diavel thank you for responding to my summons!" The now named swordsman announce.

"My job is.. in my mind a knight." the blue haired "knight" stated as he puffed out his chest.

Helena facepalmed at the stupidity of this so called leader.

"You idiot there are no classes in this game!" a player yelled out from the front of the arena row as the crowd laughed at him.

"Is this meeting a joke?" another player commented.

"You should take this seriously!"

Asuna and Kirito just sighed and shook their heads hopefully this meeting would get more professional after all this WAS a death game and everyone wanted to get out alive.

"Today my party discovered the boss room at the top of the tower." Diavel spoke seriously with a look that got everyone's attention.

"Seriously?" most of the players questioned at once as they began mumbling to themselves.

 _'Oh they found the boss already? The last time I checked the boss was Illfang though that was in the beta it's highly likely that Kiyaba changed things up. Nothing like being dull and have the same enemies for the first twelve floors that I discovered.'_ Helena mused to herself.

"We need to defeat this boss, unlock the second floor and tell everyone back at _The Town of Beginnings_ that it **IS** possible to beat this game! And that's the duty of every one of us here!" the man continued on after it settled down after a few moments.

The crowd slowly clapped with some wolf whistles in between at the man's statement with his seemingly natural charisma.

"This man..." Kirito started to muse as Asuna looked over at him. "He has natural charisma with people, someone that can help start a noble quest... I'm kinda envious."

"I'm sure you could be the same Kirito-kun." Asuna replied to the boy. "You are strong and very knowledgable at the game. Even greater than my sister at times."

"To be fair Asuna-chan I just did the sound aspect along with a couple other projects in the SAO universe. Kirito-chan here is more tech savvy than I am." Helena explained.

"Yeah... says the one who got to Floor Twelve." Kirito retorted with a irked look on his face.

"With a party of Seven. You were solo." Helena grinned before Kirito conceited to the logic of the older woman.

"Then without further a-do let's get this boss-raid meeting underway. First I want you to have a party of six. A conventional party has no chance against a floor boss." The now dubbed "leader" explained while the players started putting together their own parties.

"Bet you're glad you teamed up with myself and Asuna now eh Kirito?" Helena teased the young swordsman.

"Oi Kirito!" a certain samurai influenced player yelled at the young teenager.

Kirito looked over and saw Klein with his friends sitting nearby him. The trio decided to move over towards them. They seemed friendly enough since Kirito knew Klein and they did speak every now and again during the first month when he needed more advice about the game's mechanics.

"I see you're still alive eh Klein. Any issues?" Kirito teased with a small grin.

"No no non at all. I decided to come to this meeting last minute. Glad I did now. Anyway I don't think you met my other friends I told you about a month ago.

"Oh so this is Dale, Dynamm, Harry One, Issin and Kunimittz?" Kirito mused though he ignored Helena laughing her ass off and rolling on the floor at Harry's name interrupting the meeting.

"So are you all done forming parties?" Diavel questioned with a slight irk at Helena's behavior, this was suppose to be serious.

"Hold on a second!" a voice yelled over the arena floor as an orange spiked swordsman jumped down the steps in front of Diavel.

 _'Who's this guy?'_ Klein, Asuna and Kirito questioned as Helena stopped laughing and stared the newcomer with a critical eye.

"My name's Kibabou. There's something I want to say before we start this boss-raid." The man introduced himself. Kirito did not like the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach.

"Some of you here need to apologize to the _**two thousand players**_ who died so far!" the man exclaimed as he pointed at Kirito.

"Kibabou. Are the people you're referring to, do mean the ex-beta testers perhaps?" the knight questioned.

Asuna noticed he seemed familar with the swordsman perhaps part of his party she gathered. She looked at him with a serious expression and wondered why he pointed at her partner.

"Of course I do! On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting spots and easy quests for themselves, so they were the only ones getting stronger. And since then, they've just ignored the rest of us." The swordsman explained with a know-it-all tone in his voice.

Helena looked over at Kirito and noticed he was shaking a bit at the swordsman's explanation. Asuna was giving Kirito a worried looked too.

Kirito had explained that he was one of the very first ones to get the beta copy, number sixteen of the young woman remembered correctly and since he built computers he already had to proper specs needs to start playing the beta version right away than most people did.

"There's got to be some of them here! Guys who were beta testers! We should make them get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded over the month!" Kibaou vociferated.

"As party members, we can't trust them with our lives, and they can't trust us." The man finished saying.

Kirito was having a blown out anxiety attack, one that he hasn't had since his parents died when he was two years old. He started shaking quite a bit before Asuna held his hand softly with a caring expression on her face which seemed to help his panic attack a bit.

Agil stood up near the front row.

"Can I say something?" the large african man asked the condesending orange haired swordsman.

"My name is Agil, Kibaou let me get this straight.." the man began to state before continuing on, Kirito paying attention to the man he met three weeks ago.

"You're saying that because of the ex-beta testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. That they should take responsibility, apologize and provide compensation. Is that right?" Agil asked staring at the shorter man as Kibaou started shaking a bit in nervousness.

Agil pulled out a small guidebook from his back pocket.

 _Official Sword Art Online Guidebook_  
 _First Edition Floors 1-12_

"You received this guidebook didn't you? It was provided for free at the item store, after all."

"Sure I got it.." Kibaou mumbled quietly to himself.

Helena decided to join the man on the ground floor.

"A month ago we beta testers held a meeting in this exact town. No non-beta testers were allowed in. If I recalled correctly you were one of the people who tried to sneak into said meeting." Helena stated with a serious expression and her arms crossed under her breasts.

Kibaou was sweatdropping more now as now apparently another beta tester confronted him.

"At the meeting we all decided to make a guide book of all we colected over the two months we played in the beta. We included all the data on monsters,items and quests that we all had completed to give new players a better chance at surviving who were new to _MMORPGs_." Helena continued on.

"Now some things are expected to change now that this game is in the Alpha stage as we like to call it. Which is why we included in the first chapter that not everything in the book is _**SET IN STONE**_. We were not going to be held accountible for deaths of those not smart enough to see this view." Helena finished before she walked up the stairs back to her group.

Agil coughed to get the crowd's attention back to him. "Everyone had equal access to this information. And yet many players still died. What to learn from those failures, and how to try to defeat the boss... That's what I thought we'd be dicussing here." Agil finalized as he stared at Kibaou before sitting back down in a nearby row near the bottom of the arena.

"All right. Can we resume the meeting now?" Diavel began to state before continuing on with his battle raid plan.

"As for the information on the boss, the guidebook of this particular boss was just released."

Kibaou swore silently as he facepalmed but listened nothertheless.

"According to it, the boss's name is _Illfang the Kobold Lord_."

"HA! KIRITO YOU OWE ME 500 COL!" Asuna shouted in joy before said teen gave her the money.

"Also, he has an entourage known as the Ruin Kobold Sentinels who spawn with each health gauge bar we deplete. The boss is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars and when the last one is in the red, he switches to a curved sword type blade called a _Talwar._ His attack pattern changes to, to that of a samurai class."

"OH COME ON!" Klein complained as his friends patted him on the back.

"This concludes the briefing. Lastly, regarding item distibution. Money will automatically divide equally. EXP goes to the party that defeats the monster. And who receives an item keeps it. Any objections?" he concluded as he noticed there were no complaints.

"Yosh! We leave tomorrow at 1000 Aincard Standard Time. Dismissed!"

Diavel gave Kibaou a slight nod as the players all disbanded and he began to follow the group of Helena,Kirito,Asuna and Klein's group.

The group all were heading to a small restaurant when Kirito heard someone call his name. Kirito turned around to find it was Kibaou. Asuna narrowed her eyes at the man. This man caused a pretty bad panic attack to her partner.

"Oi Asuna,Kirito we'll go ahead and get our reservation. We'll see you there!" Helena yelled back leaving the two of them to deal with Kibaou.

"I hear you two have an _Anneal Blade and a Fortified +4 Steel Rapier_ I'll buy it from you both for _10,000 Col_." The man offered.

 _'So... that's his game try to get stronger weapons for his weak ones.'_ Asuna concluded.

"They're not for sale Kibaou. Besides it's not the greatest idea to weaken one's supply on the eve of a boss raid." Kirito explained to the man.

"I'll double my offer." he countered.

"Kibaou we said no. We may be in the same raid-group however we do not owe you anything. If you wanted an _Anneal Blade_ you should've done the _Medicine of the Forest_ quest like Kirito-kun did with me and my sister." Asuna harshly told the man.

"Fine fine..." the man sighed before looking over at Asuna with a rather peverted eye.

"Want to be my girlfriend?" he asked with a smirk, no woman ever said no to him before.

Asuna's eye twitched before she turned on her heel and grabbed Kirito's arm and dragged him to the restuarant with her leaving Kibaou there with his jaw dropped.

"Did.. did she just refuse me?! WHAT THE HELL?!" the swordman raged at the top of his lungs.

Asuna smirked as she still held on to Kirito's arm.

"Uhhh Asuna not that I'm complaining but you can let go of me now." Kirito meekly said to the young woman.

Asuna epped as she realized that she grabbed her partner in a romantic way and blushed heavily before apologizing to Kirito before the boy nonchalantly waved her off saying it was no big deal.

Unknown to either party Helena had recorded the whole thing. She oh did so love to blackmail her little sister of her embrassing moments. Though she did think that the two swordsman made a lovely couple.

"Hmmm maybe I should play matchmaker with those two... Nah... Asuna's old enough to know what she wants." she grinned to herself before she went back with Klein's group who was already seated.

"What was that about?" The samurai asked.

"Oh nothing nothing just a little event I had to oversee."

Asuna and Kirito arrived where the group was sitting and sat next to Klein while looking at the menu.

"Well hello love birds enjoy yourselves?" Helena teased as Kirito blushed and Asuna grumbled as she hid her face into the menu.

"Eh? Not much of a choice here huh?" Klein complained.

"The bread and cream is pretty decent all things considered." Kirito commented before he made his order to the waitress.

 _December 3, 2022 Floor 1 Forest Field_

"Let's go over the battle plan again, Since we are a leftover team, our target is the entourage with the boss. We should first disable them before attacking them." Kirito explained.

"I'll use one of my sword skills to knock their poleaxes up, while you and Helena switch with me and finish it off."

"Switch?" Asuna questioned, never hearing of the term before.

Helena facepalmed leaving a mark on her poreclain face.

"I knew I forgot to teach her something in the beta." Helena complained

"Don't tell me... she never learned how to do so?" Kirito asked the taller woman.

"Yeahhhh she usually dealt with small fry though she has a tendancy for overkilling her targets." Helena stated as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Hmph you act like that was a bad thing." Asuna pouted.

Kirito sighed slightly before sending Klein a message since he was behind the group.

"Yo Kirito you rang?" the samurai asked

"Yes Asuna doesn't know how to switch so I decided to do you a favor and join us until we get to the boss room and teach you both about the more advance battle tactics of the game." Kirito explained.

 _1240 AST Illfang's Boss Room_

Diavel stopped just before the door for the Boss Room when he turned around and thrust his sword into the ground before addressing the boss raid party.

"Listen up everyone. I have only one thing to say. Let's win! Let's go!" Diavel stated as he opened the door

As they entered the room they noticed a glow of the bosses eyes as he jumped forward fifty feet in front of the group as his entourage of _Ruin Kobold Sentinels_ spawned and charged at the party.

Diavel raised his sword and pointed at the enemy as he battled cried "Commence Attack!" as the raid party all charged forward towards the boss.

Diavel had three of the groups attack Illfang directly while Kirito and Klein's group were assigned to deal with the Sentinels.

As according to plan Diavel was directing the groups so that there was no risk of any of the players dying. The plan was to focus tanks on Illfang so that the others could steadily take down the boss.

With Kirito and Klein's group they were making short work with the Sentinels with the experience of the beta testers and the team work of Klein's friends. Kirito countered a Kobold's attack on him leaving him vulnerable to a counteract which Asuna captailized on with a sword skill _Above_ which sweep up the entourage before finishing it off with a _Linear_.

Normally Helena would've finished it off however she said she'd be fine with her level for a couple of floors according to her calculations so she wanted Kirito and Asuna to focus on working together and she focused on helping Klein's group being their DPS while still backing up Asuna when she needed it.

Illfang suddenly roared in rage as he threw the bone axe and buckler at the group forcing Asuna and Kirito to dodge since they were making quick work of his minions. The boss drew his nōdachi gathering the attention of Kirito's group.

"What the... that's not a Talwar! That's a Nōdachi! That didn't appear til the fifth floor!" Kirito exclaimed.

Diavel ran forward and prepared a more advanced sword skill called _Star Quint Prominence_ which he knew from stalking Kirito's group during the mission they did a couple weeks back.

 _'Heh thanks for the assist Kirito.'_

"Stay back! I got this!" the knight exclaimed as his sword glew a bright gold color.

Suddenly Illfang jumped up on the pillars as his nōdachi began to glow a bright red as Kirito and Helena's eyes grew in surprised

"JUMP AWAY DAIVEL!" they yelled in unison getting the attention of Agil, Klein and Kibaou as they wondered what was going on.

The boss shot down behind the leader in a diagonal strike before striking strong and true depleting two-thirds of his health before finally punting the knight across the field nearby Kirito's group. Leaving the whole raid party stunned at their leader being cut down like cannon fodder.

"Daivel!" Kirito exclaimed as he ran to the man with a health potion.

The knight stopped him from using the potion finding himself not worthy of help dispite his health bar going down to zero.

"Why did you try and finish him off alone?"

"I was a beta tester like you... Kirito."

"You went after the last attack bonus..." the swordsman assumed before Daivel nodded

"Please... for everyone. Defeat the boss. Lead everyone so that they can get out of this game." the man begged before his avatar crumbled into nothingness leaving Kirito there alone where he knelt to help the man.

Kirito tightened his grip on his _Anneal Blade_ and stood up with Asuna right beside him.

"I'll go with you Kirito-kun." Kirito nodded at Asuna as he started running towards the boss.

"We'll attack him like we did with the Sentinels!"

"Right!"

Helena and Klein helped direct the others to fend off the new Sentinels that started spawning in the past few minutes of Illfang's devastating attack on Kiavel.

"Agil! Back up Kirito and Asuna if they need it! We don't know what else the AI may have changed!"

"Right!"

Illfang's blade started glowing blue with a hand on it's hilt, when Kirito saw this he did the same and used his sword skill _Vertical_ to disable and temporaily stun the boss while Asuna followed up with a _Linear_. The boss suddenly recovered quicker than expected and raised his nōdachi to cleave Asuna's head off.

"Asuna! Dodge to the left!" Kirito cried out as she did that losing her cloak in the process and followed up with a _Streak,_ a horizontal sweep from the left to right and appeared behind the monster with no damage done to her though her stamina was starting to get low over the duration of this long raid, they have been fighting this boss for over half an hour now.

Kirito sprang forward for a _Horizontal Square_ to strike at one of Illfang's weak points and lower his defense a bit to hopefully kill this thing faster than they were. The boss still had about 250 health left out of it's 3,000.

Illfang blocked it with it's nōdachi and kicked Kirito into Asuna causing the boy to drop his sword. The boss's blade glew a blood red again, the same move that was used to knock out seventy-five percent of Daivel's health, Asuna put up a weak guard to try and defend against it.

Suddenly Agil sprang forward and blocked it while the other five members of his group engaged the boss to distract it.

"We'll keep it busy while you recover your health!"

"Thanks Agil." Kirito thanked the man.

Illfang knocked back Agil's group and started to jump from pillar to pillar aiming to kill the other members at once, on quick reflexes and reaction Kirito kipped up and jumped after Illfang activating his sword skill _Vorpal Strike_ causing him to crash into the ground hard and stunning him.

Asuna starting running forward and disarmed the Kobold Lord before Kirito ran behind her and finished off the boss with a battle cry filled _Savage Fulcrum_.

 _Congrats You Defeated Illfang the Kobold Lord_

The raid party was silent for a few seconds before everyone started cheering and hugging each other. A lone voice stopped the cheering as he asked a single question.

"Why do you let Daivel die?" Kibaou asked Kirito with tears down his cheeks

"You knew about Illfang's nōdachi but didn't tell us up front."

The crowd was mumbling amongst themselves as Klein, Agil, Asuna and Helena looked over at Kirito who remained silent.

"Kibaou, we told you that the guidebook was based on the beta testing months." Helena stated rather irked at the boy. Honestly, it's like this was his first MMO.

Kirito swallowed heavily as Asuna gave him a worried look, Kirito stood up with a serious expression on his face.

"The reason why I knew about the nōdachi is only because I faced mobs using said blade. I made it further than everyone in the beta test." Kirito began to state before Helena coughed at him with a glare.

"Besides Helena however... you can't expect us beta testers to know everything Kiyaba must've switch elements out so even the guidebook that we made won't be much help to us now." Kirito explained.

"You're worse than a beta tester... You're a cheater yeah... a BEATER!" Kibaou exclaimed at the swordsman.

"Beater huh? I like that term." Kirito mused as he equipped the last attacking bonus he was awarded _The Coat of Midnight_.

"Kibaou... don't think that most of the beta testers were all strong most of them didn't know how to leave up." Helena explained.

"Our raid party by itself was better than about sixty-five percent of them." Asuna continued for her sister offering her point of view.

Kirito began to go up the stairs to unlock the teleport for the next floor with an emotionless expression on his face.

"Kirito." Agil called out.

"Yeah?"

"Keep your friends close, that's all I'm going to say." Agil stated before sending him a friend request which Kirito accepted.

"It's been a long day Kirito-chan how about we go rest at the inn?" Asuna inquired before the boy smiled at her and nodded.

 _End of Chapter 3_

 _Greetings Helena here, I can't believe I got this chapter out as fast as I did. For the next chapter we're going to go on a wee bit of a time skip. I may get the next chapter out next week at this rate. Til then ja ne! Leave a review!_


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